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Allissand
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HUMANS AND MACHINES
“Why does this magnificent applied science which saves effort and makes life easier bring us so little happiness?” The question appeared on February 17, 1931, in The New York Times: these were the words Albert Einstein had addressed the previous day to the students of the California Institute of Technology. “The simple answer runs: because we have not yet learned to make sensible use of it…"
Outside the Frame. Imagining Otherwise
in the Age of Artificial Intelligence
by Francesca Lagioia
Architettura
The architect’s second mind
From inspiration to decision-making: what happens when AI enters the design process? Architects Giovanni Sanna and Riccardo Piazzai reflect on the opportunities, risks and new responsibilities emerging as machines begin to participate in creative workflows.
The city and its double: how digital twins are reshaping urban planning
From Singapore to Helsinki, and even to smaller historic cities such as Urbino, digital twins – highly detailed virtual replicas built from real-world data – are helping cities imagine the future without losing sight of the lessons of the past.
Purcell Architects: improving heritage buildings and restoring civic pride
Tom Brigden, partner at heritage architecture specialists Purcell Architects, explains how older and abandoned properties can be sustainably adapted and brought back into use, so that all members of the community can enjoy them for years to come.
Rome: Eternal City, everyday metropolis
No other city is more representative of history and memory than Rome. An exhibition seeks out its essence, among artistic imagination and everyday life, socio-economic data and global comparisons. We explore these themes with the curators Ricky Burdett, Paola Viganò and Keti Lelo
Arte e Ceramica
What if AI were a material and not a tool?
What happens when artificial intelligence meets clay, not as a tool for automation, but as a material to engage with? Dutch designer and researcher Vera van der Burg explores precisely this question, approaching AI as a malleable medium.
Clare Twomey and the ceramic gesture: from hands to machines (and back)
What do a cup, a factory, and a Roman brick have in common? Ceramics, a thread connecting collective memory, labour, and materiality. Few artists embody this connection more clearly than Clare Twomey, who sees clay as a continuous trace of human action, linking industry, craftsmanship, and participation.
The town that walks and plays
The artist Vica Pacheco came up with a collective music work for the hamlet of Bagnara di Romagna: a lay procession and concert with ceramic instruments aiming to listen to the place, its history and its nature.
Bouke de Vries: fragments of ceramics, pieces of memory
In their suspended beauty, the works of the Dutch artist do not conceal but rather show their nature as ceramics put back together, their consistency as regenerated fragments. Bouke de Vries explains why he chose to breathe new life into the remains of a distant past.
teamLab’s digital art expands our idea of beauty
Design
Beyond the natural: Filippo Nassetti's cross-contaminations
Designer and artist, Nassetti sees the true potential of computational technologies in their ability to expand our imagination, fostering new relationships between the natural and the artificial.
Taiwan: an AI bicycle tool improves design for industry professionals
The world’s ‘Bicycle Kingdom’ is tackling the sector’s most pressing issues with a solution that could revolutionize other creative industries.
Sheng-Hung Lee’s template for longevity-oriented design
Design for Longevity Unclock Framework by Professor Lee is a tool that helps designers explore intersec-tions across longevity, service, system, design, technology and society. It uses technological advances and slow observation to improve the way we approach design.
What remains of the city
For the architect Luciano Crespi, abandoned spaces are not waste but rather sources of potential, places in which memory can evolve. Thus comes the concept of ‘design of the unfinished’, in which the city is not consumed but reactivated through new uses.
News
New Humans: progress is never a straight line
From the avant-garde movements of the early twentieth century to artificial intelligence, New Humans at New York’s New Museum brings together artists from different eras to ask a question that remains as urgent as ever: how does our idea of what it means to be human change as technology evolves?
Bringing museums to life: Dotdotdot's approach to interaction design
No longer passive repositories of objects, museums are increasingly becoming places where collections interact with visitors. This is one of the favourite testing grounds for the Milan-based design studio Dotdotdot, whose work is driven by a simple principle: technology should always serve the story - not the other way around.
Bodies and bits: Rebecca Allen, a pioneer of digital art
Long before digital avatars and AI-generated imagery became part of everyday life, American artist Rebecca Allen was placing the female body at the centre of virtual space. We spoke with her about the relationship between physicality and technology as a major retrospective at Milan’s MEET Digital Culture Center retraces her career.
Art d’Égypte: a contemporary short-circuit among the pyramids
The cultural platform founded by the curator Nadine Abdel Ghaffar periodically returns to activate the Giza pyramid site and the age-old culture of Egypt, helping it to dialogue with contemporary art. With what aim? To arouse shock among the public to recreate a state of attention.